Abstract
The Suleman octuplet case is the first reported case in which surviving octuplets
were born as a result of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. In this case,
the octuplets were born to an American single mother of six children, who was on public
assistance, and who used a sperm donor. This has raised multiple ethical questions,
which include the ethical obligations of the health care providers involved, the informed
consent process, as well as moral obligations of the mother to her existing children
and unborn children. This case analysis provides a clinical ethics and prenatal ethics
framework, based on relevant American media and public documents available from January
26, 2009, to January 26, 2010, the period of time in which media scrutiny of this
case was most relevant. Although this analysis introduces broader ethical implications,
it is not intended as a philosophical discourse regarding the rights of patients to
reproduce or the rights of society to place limits on who can and who cannot reproduce;
neither is it intended as an in-depth policy review of reproductive technologies.
Rather, this analysis focuses on clinical ethics breaches in this particular case,
which led to an unintended outcome. The relevant clinical ethical principles, duties,
and obligations are identified, with recommendations for a preventative ethics approach
in the absence of clear policies that regulate embryo transfer.
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Biography
M. Sara Rosenthal, PhD, is Associate Professor, Bioethics and Director, Program for Bioethics at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. She is Chair of the University of Kentucky Medical Center's Hospital Ethics Committee and directs the clinical ethics consult service.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 04, 2010
Accepted:
April 6,
2010
Received in revised form:
April 6,
2010
Received:
October 14,
2009
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
